9 takeaways from Barack Obama’s Brexit intervention

LONDON — Downing Street has long thought Barack Obama’s intervention in the EU referendum debate could be pivotal.

But even David Cameron’s closest aides could barely control their delight as the U.S. president demolished one of the central arguments of the campaign to take Britain out of the European Union.

Going much further than anyone imagined — Number 10 included — Obama warned British voters that the U.K. would not be able to strike a free trade deal with Washington outside the EU. Britain would be alone — cut adrift — was the message.

Standing alongside David Cameron in the Foreign Office’s grand Locarno Room, the president warned that Britain would go “to the back of the queue” and would not be able to strike a trade deal “any time soon.” The “special relationship” would endure regardless of the result on June 23, but Britain was really only valuable to the U.S. because of its influence in the world, he said.

Here are nine takeaways from their dramatic press conference:

1) Obama spoke softly, but came with a big stick

At first, Obama appeared to want to love bomb Britain into taking his advice. The U.K., he said, was a “beautiful island”, the Queen an “inspiration” and David Cameron a “great friend.”

But beneath the pleasantries was a stark warning — you really are on your own if you vote to leave.

He mocked the Leave campaign for claiming it would be easy to strike a free trade deal with the U.S. and warned that Britain would not be as important to Washington if it walked away from the EU.

The Euroskeptics, he said, were “voicing an opinion about what the United States is going to do … so I figured you might want to hear from the president of the United States.”

“Maybe some point down the line there might be a U.K.-U.S. trade agreement,” he said — but “it’s not going to happen any time soon because our focus is in negotiating with a big bloc, the European Union, to get a trade agreement done.”

In a coup de grace, he then added: “The U.K. is going to be in the back of the queue.”

2) Number 10 is delighted

As the president launched his unexpectedly brutal assault on the Brexit campaign, Cameron’s closest aides looked on with barely-contained glee — turning to the press behind them with broad smiles to mark what they were witnessing.

Number 10 knew the president would call for Britain to stay in the EU and speak glowingly of the U.K.’s influence in the world and its importance to the U.S.. But to directly skewer the Brexit campaign’s central argument for leaving was more than they had ever hoped for.

Uncharacteristically, the prime minister was happy to keep quiet as the president held the floor. Cameron even passed up the chance to kick Leave campaigner Boris Johnson, the Tory mayor of London, leaving that to his “good friend Barack.”

3) Leave campaign’s worst day

Having already seen support for Brexit start to slip, the Leave campaign will have to quickly find a way to get over Friday, or face a mountain to climb with just two months left before polling day.

The U.S. president’s intervention Friday capped what was already proving to be a day to forget for the outers.

Johnson’s clumsy accusations that Obama had an “ancestral dislike” for Britain had sparked outrage. But it then began to look absurd as the president flew into Windsor Castle for a special visit to the Queen to wish her a happy 90th birthday.

Number 10 had hoped the president’s intervention would help cast the Out campaign as a fringe movement, marginalized from the international mainstream. The London mayor’s clumsy comments about the president’s race will only serve to strengthen such concerns, the Remain campaign believe.

The spokesman of the Remain campaign, James McGrory, said the Obama press conference “couldn’t have gone better.”

“It has made my day to see how angry it has got the Leave campaigners,” he said.

4) Boris diminished

Cameron has joked that there are too many journalists who should be politicians and too many politicians who should be journalists. The London mayor, a £250,000-a-year columnist for the Daily Telegraph, looked more like a mischievous hack than a future prime minister. Suggesting the “part Kenyan president” had an “ancestral dislike” for Britain looked spectacularly misjudged.

Aware that Johnson had overreached himself, Cameron simply said: “Questions for Boris are questions for Boris are questions for Boris.”

Writing in the Sun, the London mayor had also held up Obama’s decision to remove a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office as evidence of the president’s anglophobia.

Obama demolished that story, saying there was a bust of Churchill in the official residence that he saw every day, adding: “I love Winston Churchill, I love the guy.”

5) It isn’t that special

If your wife has to tell you she loves you every time she opens her mouth, your relationship might not be as strong as it seems.

Equally, the strength of Britain’s special relationship with Washington would look more secure if the U.S. president didn’t feel he had to mention it every second sentence while he’s in London.

Obama was keen to stress how much he respected Britain and insisted the special relationship would remain regardless of the referendum result. But their shared values were only of use to the U.S. if Britain helped to promote them internationally.

It may be a special relationship — but it’s not unconditional love. It comes with strings attached.

6) Obama really likes the Queen

If Obama was out to dispel doubts about his affection for the U.K., his eulogy to the Queen certainly helped.

“She is truly one of my favorite people,” he said, adding that he had wanted to come to the U.K. to wish Her Majesty a happy 90th birthday.

At Windsor Castle he and his First Lady had been driven by the 94-year-old Duke of Edinburgh from their helicopter — which was “very smooth riding.”

The Queen, he said, was “a source of inspiration for me like so many other people around the world.”

“She is an astonishing person and a real jewel to the world and not just to the United Kingdom.”

7) Immigration — a reason to be fearful

One moment did give the Out campaign reason for encouragement — the stark warnings about migration from both Cameron and Obama.

Obama said he considered the “uncontrolled migration into Europe” to be “a major national security issue”.

That led Justice Minister Dominic Raab, a leading Out campaigner, to repeat that leaving the European Union would allow Britain to “take back control so that we can stop terror suspects from Europe coming into the U.K..”

8) Unconvincing bromance

The Cameron-Obama love-in saw the president talking about their “extraordinary partnership.” This was in stark contrast to his original impression in 2008, when he is said to have told aides that the then opposition leader was a lightweight.

Cameron, meanwhile, said he had got to know the U.S. president very well over the last six years and was “honored” to have him as a friend.

“He’s taught me the rules of basketball, he’s beaten me at table tennis. I remember very fondly the BBQ we had in Number 10 Downing Street, serving servicemen and women who serve our countries together, here in the United Kingdom.

“I’ve always found Barack someone who gives sage advice. He’s a man with a very good heart. He’s a very good friend and always will be a good friend, I know, to the United Kingdom.”

In other words: Shut up Boris.

9) Beware the forces of division

Obama said U.K. voters would make their judgment in the EU referendum based on their economic interests. But he pleaded with them to consider the signal it would send demagogues and populists on the Continent and abroad.

It was difficult to avoid the impression that the U.S. president was both painting the Out campaign as extreme — and warning about the threats posed by the U.K. referendum to moderate governments everywhere.

He said: “I do also think this vote will sent a signal that is relevant about whether the kind of prosperity we have built together is going to continue or whether the forces of division end up being more prominent.”

trisul

American states united in the United States of America and achieved a world leadership position. It is sad that so many Europeans need to be reminded that strength comes from unity. The idea behind the EU was always to create a critical mass, able to offset the might of large countries such as the US, China and Russia. This has not changed, why does it take an American president to explain this to us?

Posted on 4/23/16 | 1:49 AM CET

Irritated voter

Why do the americans always have the need to interfere with other countrys buissness?! In this case elections. Stop ordering other countrys voters how to vote! They can do that perfectly fine withot you! So mr. O, please stop interfer!

Posted on 4/23/16 | 9:10 AM CET

Veritas-Semper

Ah, the Barack touch… meddle in in the internal politics of a sovereign country… a truly “democratic” approach by that “greatest of the Nobelists”…

Think about how much damage Obama has done to the world with his failed policies and think again
before you take his advice, you could get your fingers burnt if you do take his advice.

Posted on 4/24/16 | 1:39 AM CET

kim

It’s fine if President Obama wants to have his say on how important he believes it is for The United Kingdom to stay in the EU. However I felt that saying that The United States would not be so quick to have a trade treaty with The United Kingdom if they left the EU, takes it to far. It doesn’t merit that kind of tough talk from an ally. They shouldn’t be threatened, its not a reprehensible vote, after all. It is up to The United Kingdom. Period.

Posted on 4/24/16 | 3:36 AM CET

chawlas

If European Union wants to survive and thrive, they have to change the EU to a “United Sates of Europe”

A common currency, collective defense, a representative, centralized federal government, a common moneteray and fiscal policy, a cohesive foreign policy are some of the features that are needed.

Yes, the member states will loose some sovereignty but gain so much more by banding together as a strong and formidable block.

Hopefully over the next few decades a widely spoken language (perhaps English) and melting of many cultures would make the United States of Europe much stronger.

Posted on 4/24/16 | 7:41 AM CET

Jochen

Really I pitty Great Britain for being treated so disrespectful and suffering pure extortion by an unrespected president who is a mere mass murderer & little puppy of Rothschild/Rockefeller/Soros & Co. I further pitty you having such a cowardly prime minister as Cameron. I really feel sorry for you.

Posted on 4/24/16 | 2:16 PM CET

twoplato

This is the greatest stich-up journo job as can be expected from the loony left. NO MENTION OF THE FOOT IN MOUTH ‘BACK OF THE QUEUE’ SELF-CONTRADICITON THAT THE UK COULD NOT BE FURTHER BACK OF THE QUEUE CURRENTLY THAN CAN BE IMAGINED BECAUSE FOR 43 YEARS IT WAS IN THE EU??????????????????????? Journalists are proven yet again as corrupt as Dodgy Dave and Druncker brigade in Bruxelles. This is absolutely as emetic as have ever read from the Left.

Posted on 4/24/16 | 6:51 PM CET

Marvel

McTague must have a Brussels job lined up to write such an unpatriotic, even vitriolic, put down of the Brexit supporters. Even a fool knows there is currently no trade agreement between the US-UK or the US-EU, yet trade flourishes in the tens of billions. A Brexit would have ZERO impact on trade.